Roasted Barley vs. Black Barley

I need a hand. I purchased from the HBS what I thought was roasted barley (~300*L), when in fact I have Black roasted Barley (~500*L). Would someone be so kind as to explain the differences, and whether using the black to impart a toasty flavor into an Irish-style Red would still work? What adjustments would I have to make?

I don't have a LHBS handy, so I have to either travel or order online... I can order the proper Roasted Barley but I really wanted to brew this thing this weekend. Help me save it?

As long as it isn't Black Patent Malt (which gives stouts a charcoal flavor), you can probably use half the required amount and be ok. I've see roasted barley in 200L to 550L. Alternatively, you can brew without it, order the right type and steep it in a cup or two of water when it arrives and add it to the fermenter. Roasted barley is unmalted and contributes flavor, but not sugar.

i'll give you one even more confusing.

when I was cleaning out my freezer, I came across 4 bags of dark roasted grain.

1. black malt
2. black barley
3. roasted barley
4. chocolate malt

I had to double check at the LHBS to make sure I knew what I had. For me, the black malt == black patent malt. I still don't recall what black barley was though, or why I ever bought it.

edit: whoops. my stout uses the black barley. I must have read something about it someplace and decided to try it.

-walker

Isn't black barley unmalted?

yeah, that sounds familiar.

I have been thinking about the different un-malted barleys. When a recipe calls for roasted barley, I assume this is un-malted since most specialty grains are simply malted barleys of various roasts, are they not? At any rate I think the term roasted barley is bandied about too much and is obviously different than roasted malt.

Roasted barley = not malted